Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Illinois politics in our backyard?

There are some waves being made at the capitol today and a people are jumping at the chance to weigh in. It was announced that soon to depart Governor Janet Napolitano is preparing to sign an executive order allowing over 25,000 state workers to select union representatives who would have a guaranteed place at the table when discussing all thing HR.

Considering that employees currently have that right, just not in a guaranteed manner, there are a few that are saying this is payback for the Unions heavy involvement in this years campaign cycle.

AZ Republican Party Chair Randy Pullen sent out the following press release regarding the executive order.

PULLEN: Payback for Unions Should Be Investigated

Phoenix, AZ—Arizona Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen today said the expected “meet and confer” executive order from outgoing Governor Janet Napolitano was a clear example of political payback for campaign contributions and should be investigated.

“While the Democrat governor of Illinois has been arrested for attempting to sell President-elect Obama’s seat in the United States Senate for a million dollars, we have a situation that reeks just as bad here in Arizona,” Pullen said.

“Just weeks before leaving office when she doesn’t have to govern with favors to unions on her back and doesn’t have to deal with the political fallout, Arizona’s Democrat governor is now saying ‘thank you’ to the unions for their campaign cash,” explained Pullen. “Arizona is a right-to-work state and the governor is changing a long standing policy because she knows it won’t matter to her political future in Arizona. The legislature has repeatedly refused to pass similar bills.

“I believe when all the checks are added up, we’ll find the amount that labor unions contributed to the Arizona Democrat Party, to Arizona Democrat candidates and to independent expenditure efforts for Democrats is well into the millions of dollars over the past six years,” said Pullen. “Organized labor contributions to Democrats in Arizona in just the 2008 election cycle alone exceeded a million dollars. Clearly the attorney general should investigate.

“If there was ever discussion of this before the elections between the governor’s office and the unions, then it is just as dirty as what is going on in Illinois and has no place in Arizona,” Pullen said.

Since the November 4th elections, the Obama-elect team has been repeatedly rocked by a growing cloud of scandal. Incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel is tied in media reports to individuals at the heart of the Blagojevich matter over the sale of Mr. Obama’s U.S. Senate seat. This week, reports broke over a growing scandal involving President-elect Obama’s nominee for Commerce Secretary, Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico, who allegedly received campaign contributions and lavish convention parties in exchange for million-dollar state contracts.

1 comment:

"Meet-and-confer authority is currently limited to state employees in the Department of Corrections, used as a sort of test case following another order signed by Napolitano in February. Forty-five cities, counties, and school and fire districts in Arizona have already approved meet-and-confer, with Pinal County most recent to join the list. Nationally, a little more than half of the states offer employees some form of union representation."

THe governor initiated this process almost a year ago--long before she could have known that she would be leaving.

As far as quid-pro-quo comment--Democrats [of which Napolitano is one] and unions have been supporting each other for a long, long time. Democrats, unlike Republicans, are not averse to unions.